We have a Grant Aerona 290 15.5kW heat pump with their new Smart Controller.  

The controller, econet24 app and web site are all pretty good.  The menu structure could be better and some things are hard to find, but most functions are there.

The data history graphs are good, but they can't track key variables such as COP, SCOP and energy consumed over a period of time.  Their support engineer told me that they are working to fix this in a future firmware update.

@hcas

Do you have any views on using Melpump (for monitoring and data collection only) alongside Havenwise which will have full control. It is suggested that although Havenwise is great at what it does the access to data/information on your app is limited. I will be interested in your thoughts please.

Posted by: @morgan

↑

@hcas

Do you have any views on using Melpump (for monitoring and data collection only) alongside Havenwise which will have full control. It is suggested that although Havenwise is great at what it does the access to data/information on your app is limited. I will be interested in your thoughts please.

I’m not @hcas but I can clarify. Since Havenwise uses Mitsi’s own API, it does not restrict in any way any other app doing the same. If you wanted to have Havenwise’s app and Mitsi’s app running at the same on different devices, that’ll work fine. If you want Home Assistant’s Melcloud integration running too, no problem. Add in the Melpump app recently mentioned, yup that’ll still be fine. And so on, and so on.

Obviously, it would not be a good idea to be using multiple apps to send commands to the heat pump; it’ll do as it’s told fine but won’t be too efficient if it gets told to do one thing only to have that contradicted shortly after by another app; having two masters is never a great idea.

Nonetheless, you’re after stats which has nothing to do with control, so any other solution which can extract data from Mitsi’s API is fair game including, as I do for some things, calling the API from Excel and burrowing in to find exactly what you need.

Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

↑

Posted by: @morgan

↑

@hcas

Do you have any views on using Melpump (for monitoring and data collection only) alongside Havenwise which will have full control. It is suggested that although Havenwise is great at what it does the access to data/information on your app is limited. I will be interested in your thoughts please.

I’m not @hcas but I can clarify. Since Havenwise uses Mitsi’s own API, it does not restrict in any way any other app doing the same. If you wanted to have Havenwise’s app and Mitsi’s app running at the same on different devices, that’ll work fine. If you want Home Assistant’s Melcloud integration running too, no problem. Add in the Melpump app recently mentioned, yup that’ll still be fine. And so on, and so on.

Obviously, it would not be a good idea to be using multiple apps to send commands to the heat pump; it’ll do as it’s told fine but won’t be too efficient if it gets told to do one thing only to have that contradicted shortly after by another app; having two masters is never a great idea.

Nonetheless, you’re after stats which has nothing to do with control, so any other solution which can extract data from Mitsi’s API is fair game including, as I do for some things, calling the API from Excel and burrowing in to find exactly what you need.

 

@majordennisbloodnok

Thank you. If I were to go that route, the Melpump app would be purely for inf/data, which, it appears, the Havenwise is light on but great at control.

As far as Excel and api are concerned, that is way beyond my capability.

Thanks for the information.

@morgan The reply from @majordennisbloodnok is spot on. 

Just to add: Melpump was built for monitoring. Havenwise was built to optimise the heat pump's operation. That explains a different approach to exposing data. So it depends what people are after.

Posted by: @hcas

↑

@morgan The reply from @majordennisbloodnok is spot on. 

Just to add: Melpump was built for monitoring. Havenwise was built to optimise the heat pump's operation. That explains a different approach to exposing data. So it depends what people are after.

@hcas

I fully intend to cede control to Havenwise as soon as my CH becomes active. I'm merely interested in the possibility of also having Melpump for the monitoring and extra info ONLY.

I'm using smarthings for our Samsung 16kw, and it really is very basic.  I can change the running mode for heating and DHW, or say when we are away (for both services but not individually e.g. keep heating but don't bother with water).  Energy usage is shown hourly, daily, weekly, monthly. And that is it!  Very limited data compared to what is shown on the controller. No download to csv so it is somewhat tedious jotting it down and typing into Excel as I do with some of it.  As others have said.  These are big corporations and should be doing much much better.

Posted by: @dowallydrifter

↑

I'm using smarthings for our Samsung 16kw, and it really is very basic.  

I feel your frustration — the heat pump is quite capable, but the app feels like a toy in comparison. It’s strange how one of the early “smart” players ended up falling short on this. Maybe too much of that R&D drifted into their ship-building division. 😄

Out of curiosity, what’s in your setup beyond the heat pump itself — a Samsung climate tank, maybe? And are you running only the SmartThings app?

I’ve been mapping what is interacting with each other in these systems, and I assume yours is a lot simpler. If you fancy, DM me a few details and I’ll update the diagram for everyone to comment on the gaps.

Posted by: @grantmethestrength

↑

I am currently refining my own smart controller for my Grant Aerona3 R32 as it has practically prehistoric controls I am now addicted to ESP32 devices! I have made a few variants Power over Ethernet, usb powered, purely modbus read write, modbus with relays, Wi-Fi, wired etc and am currently working on a simple user interface on a waveshare ESP32-S3 7 inch touch screen. I am still testing things and may need a second device to handle relays but it has been a fun journey.

Wow, a lot on those boards.. 

I did get into ESP32 on my HA but got side-tracked. 

I have an emerging niggle with monitoring a battery cellbank. Over bluetooth and their app I see plenty. Even if I have bluetooth on my HA, it does not reach.   

Do you also use HA to monitor or control your inverter? As I already have three integration adapters pointing at my Solis inverter, am I dreaming that info could be set to "flow" from the modbus of the battery via the Solis? 

Posted by: @batpred

↑

Even if I have bluetooth on my HA, it does not reach. 

This is ambiguous; please clarify.

Are you telling us that the position in which you have your HA set-up is out-of-range of bluetooth transmissions from the BMS unit in your battery?

Or are you commenting that the Seplos App for your BMS provides you with a richer set of data?

Posted by: @batpred

↑

As I already have three integration adapters pointing at my Solis inverter, am I dreaming that info could be set to "flow" from the modbus of the battery via the Solis? 

1: Please define what you mean by "integration adapters".

From what source have you picked up that term?
Is it perhaps a poor translation from Mandarin?

2: As for getting data from the Seplos BMS transferred to the Solis inverter, you are very likely to be disappointed.

The only data from the BMS which gets retrieved by the inverter is what is requested.
Seplos can't send out a "here's all my current data" package, and expect that 3rd-party inverters will somehow 'handle it' or 'store it'.

In common with the majority of inverter manufacturers who like to claim 'compatibility' Solis will be asking for the bare minimum from the BMS.
In most cases this comes down to what the BMS believes is

the raw battery voltage (ie not taking into account the present current-flow in or out
an estimate of the State of Charge (SoC) which is notoriously tricky to calculate, especially for LiFePO4 chemistry

In short, if you want specific data from an inverter, then instruct your micro-controller to retrieve it (Modbus over RS485)

And if you want data from the BMS, then do likewise.

You can't expect one Modbus-enabled device on the bus to pick up the data you'd like from another.

On a positive note, last week Qualcom, the chip manufacturer, announced they would take over Arduino.

Whilst there will still be lots of 'unlicensed' Arduino modules available from China, such as the Nano variants,
it paves the way for some very useful new functionality on future official modules.

@batpred you can create bluetooth repeaters from esp32 devices aaaaaggggghhhhh I need to step away from the esp’s !!! There are a bunch of Solis modbus integrations for Home Assistant depending on what you want to achieve. My mate uses his to integrate with Octopus and he is making massive savings, he is using a raspberry pi rather than esp32 (heathen!).

Posted by: @grantmethestrength

↑

@batpred you can create bluetooth repeaters from esp32 devices aaaaaggggghhhhh I need to step away from the esp’s !!! There are a bunch of Solis modbus integrations for Home Assistant depending on what you want to achieve. My mate uses his to integrate with Octopus and he is making massive savings, he is using a raspberry pi rather than esp32 (heathen!).

🤣

Potentially monitoring the BMS from Home Assistant would allow this table to be filled. I have not really thought what for, since the inverter seems to be able to get SOC. That should be enough to get a few integrations that also use tariff data (Octopus) to work. But perhaps an optimisation for the future... 

To keep it simple, following some official instructions, I got the SEPLOS BMS and the Solis inverter connected using some chinese CAN protocol, I think Solis'. Fogstar recommends Pylontech. Eventually we will get there and maybe then it all works.

If not, I may need to use some of the ESPs I have lying around. And program them to repeat bluetooth.. 

I am clearly mixing IT terminology with VLSI etc but this topic is all very low DC voltage so not safety critical. @transparent will no doubt share views on this